


No One Here But Me

by nerdwegian



Series: Tumblr Prompts [23]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-25
Updated: 2014-05-25
Packaged: 2018-01-26 12:17:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1688108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdwegian/pseuds/nerdwegian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first letter is short and to the point.</p><p>(Tumblr prompt: Anonymous letters.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	No One Here But Me

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Laura for the beta. This was supposed to be C/C, but... then it wasn't? D: Sorry.

The first letter is short and to the point:

_**Disappear.  
SHIELD has fallen.**_

Clint doesn't know who sent it, but he appreciates the heads up fifteen minutes later when he goes to check in with Agent Jameson and nearly takes a bullet to the head.

Clint doesn't know if he can trust whoever sent the letter, but he does know he can't trust SHIELD anymore. He leaves everything except the clothes off his back with Agent Jameson's body, and then burns the entire safe house to the ground. For good measure.

*

The second letter freaks him out, because who the fuck knows he's here?

__**Dock C  
** 8pm  
Blossom  
Cargo bay #26 

Clint considers the possibility that it's a trap. He's getting by, he's surviving, but he knows he can't go on like this forever. He'd be an easy target in his current condition, too.

But in the end, he decides that if someone really wanted him dead, since they clearly know where he's hiding, they could have just killed him in his sleep.

At 8pm that night, he watches a cargo ship with faded letters spelling out _Blossom_ , as it approaches Dock C. Sneaking on board is a piece of cake, and cargo bay 26 doesn't even have security. From what Clint can see so far, _Blossom_ appears to be hauling retail merchandise, nothing peculiar or suspicious about it--but when he opens the first crate in cargo bay 26 and stares at row after row of sleek recurve bows, he understands perfectly.

Having a bow in his hands again feels like coming home.

*

The third letter saves his life again.

Clint finally finds Fury in France, and they set up a meeting in Le Havre.

Clint finds the letter in the middle of his hotel bed. It creeps him out, that someone got that close, but he still plucks the paper from the mattress and unfolds it. There are only two words written on it, in bold marker, underlined several times.

_**Not Fury.**_

Clint ducks from the spray of bullets that suddenly pierces his hotel room walls. A bullet grazes his bicep, and drawing his bow hurts. He takes out three of his attackers, and only makes it out of the window by the skin of his teeth.

Later, much later, as Clint's hiding out in someone's backyard and wrapping his bicep with a strip of his t-shirt, he looks to the night sky and feels very alone.

"Wish I knew who you were so I could thank you properly," he mumbles.

It's definitely someone who used to be SHIELD; Clint knows that much, at least. And yeah, he probably shouldn't trust anyone even remotely affiliated with SHIELD at the moment, just as he's sure nobody would trust him if he came knocking on their door, but really. At this point, he doesn't have much left to lose.

Clint looks at his shoddy makeshift bandage and makes a fist, clenching and unclenching a few times.

*

In Switzerland, Clint's packing up his stuff to check out of the hotel, when impulse strikes him. He grabs a piece of paper and scribbles _**Thanks**_ on it. Then he leaves it on the bed.

He doubts his anonymous life-saver (literally) will see it, but he has to try anyway.

*

Clint's bruised and beat to hell, but he's alive, when he staggers up to the receptionist and says, "I have an appointment with Mr. Stark," voice raw from disuse.

The receptionist stands up with a shocked gasp, but Clint waves off her attempts at calling the cops or an ambulance. The novelty of being able to stand out in the open like this, the sudden feeling of freedom, is giving Clint a lot of extra strength at the moment. "Just get Mr. Stark," Clint says. "He knows what this is about. He's expecting me."

She places both hands over her mouth for a moment, and then says, "You're Agent Barton."

"I think that's just Mr. Barton now," Clint says, smirking and wiping away blood from underneath his nose.

"Someone left this message for you," the receptionist says.

Clint smiles at the note she hands him.

_**You're welcome.**_

Clint laughs, exhausted and dehydrated, and absolutely delirious with joy, because things have started falling into place with the remnants of SHIELD, allies he can trust are starting to come out of the woodwork, and Clint's finally found a safe harbor.

End.


End file.
